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Last July, my wife Esther started acting strangely. I had noticed that her memory had been spotty for about 3 years prior to this incident, but I was finally forced to have her admitted to a nursing facility for dementia. After downsizing and selling our home where we had lived for about 40 years, I was unable to sleep one night and the opening lines of the following poem came to me, so I got up and jotted them down:

My wife, Clare, and I love to travel. Upon retirement, we flew across the Arctic Circle, strolled across the Great Wall of China and through Red Square in Moscow, and meandered among the giant tortoises in the Galapagos. But on one of our trips, I noticed Clare forgetting things, and these weren't mere "senior moments." She'd talk about two grandchildren, although we have four. Or she'd talk about our trip to France, though we'd never been there.

I lost my dear Dad on Marxh 22, 2013. He fought a hard fight and cheated death a few times. We were told he showed signs of Alzheimer's about six years ago. It is so hard to watch a loved one struggle with this disease and slowly take away his memory, dignity, and ability to function without assistance.

My Dad was very intelligent, owned his own business, could build anything and grow the best garden vegetables. He was very social, loved Johnny Cash and was often the life of the party playing air guitar.